If your offering is a goat, you shall bring it before the Lord –Leviticus 3:12

HappyGoLucky. That’s the name of your horse.

Let’s say it’s the early 1900’s, and you’ve got a big race coming up.  The problem is, HappyGoLucky is kind of jumpy before the big day. What do you do?

The solution? If you put a goat in the stall with your horse, it’ll calm him right down. That’s right, a goat.

Now here’s where things get nasty. Sometime during the middle of the night, someone breaks in and gets your goat! That means HappyGoLucky isn’t so happy come race time.  He’s shaky and nervous!

ARGGGGGHHHH! Who Got Your Goat?

Believe it or not, this is (according to several websites) the probable origin for that strange phrase. There’s no way to know if it’s really true or not, but the description seems accurate for my life.

I’ll be feeling HappyGoLucky, and then some annoying person gets my goat, leaving me all unsettled.

Sound familiar?

Who gets your goat? The person that gets mine may not be the same as the person who gets yours. Maybe you have a personality conflict. Maybe they remind you of someone you’ve had issues with in the past.

Maybe you can’t figure out what it is about this person that gets your goat, but it behooves you (get it?) to do something about it.

Here are three suggestions:

1) Better security. You can try to play it safe. If you’re paying better attention to your boundaries, you might not let as many goat-thieves near you. Still, if you’re too isolated you’ll never find your way out of the gate.

2) More goats. You can practice safety in numbers. There may be some goat-getters you can’t avoid. But if you’re surrounded with people and things that keep you calm and centered, someone could get a few of your goats but you’d still be ready for the big race.

3) Confront the thief. If someone gets your goat on a regular basis, maybe it’s worth talking to them. You don’t have to start an argument or explode in anger, but sometimes you may have to be honest. You may just need to get to know each other better, develop some respect and trust of each other. Who knows? You may have been getting a few of their goats without knowing it.

Life is an important race, and you don’t want to let anybody else cause you to stumble. At the same time, lots of goat-stealers do so unintentionally. Perhaps they’re just awkward. Perhaps you’re being too sensitive. Whatever the case, you’ve got a journey ahead of you, and you want to minimize the number of times you stumble.

Shaky and jumpy is not a good bet…

I’ve got my money on HappyGoLucky.

Have a great week,

Mitch